Moving into the Cave

As we turn the wheel of the year, we are heading into a time of harvest and preparation. We head into the mysterious world of the Cave! The West, the Womb of the Mother where we seek rest and comfort. Here we will journey with the mother to know ourselves better and to learn another grain of her infinite wisdom.
This time of the year is one of my favorites! Of course there is Samhain, which is one of the most exciting witchy holidays! This year my sista witches and I will be celebrating Samhain with a lovely ritual and it just so happens to be the 5th anniversary of this Sahain ritual. This year instead of just visiting Baba Yaga, The Sahdow, and The Crone, there will be a new guest bringing a message of sacred magick and bits of wisdom. This new entity will be Crow. Crow/Raven medicine is a new medicine for me. I just started walking my path with Crow in August and already she has opened the world of Sacred Law to me and has brought ample amounts of insight for the path I walk.
One project that I have prayed on and been working out is creating a Crow mask. This mask would be used for ritual and if everything goes accordingly I will be done with the mask in time for Samhain. Ever since a drumming session in August I have been finding Crow/Raven feathers all over. I always seem to find a feather when I am talking about spiritual topics or thinking about my spiritual path. This mask has really started to evolve over the past few weeks and is becoming a spiritual labor of love.
I have been researching on various ways of expressing the Crow through dance and one day I found this beautiful picture of some Native Women dancing with amazing masks and capes fashioned after Crow. Of course there are no videos or descriptions of Crow dances so I am on my own to make one up, but that is the creative aspect of my spiritual path. This is a chance for me to allow Spirit to flow through me and teach me gentle lessons to further my spiritual path.
My altar is covered with feathers from Crow and has been bringing the medicine and magick of Crow into my everyday life. The Goddess on my altar looks fierceeee with the feathers standing guard on either side of her! On the altar you should also see a picture of Hecate with two feathers followed by a Smoky Quartz crystal which then starts a direct line to the bowl on the right. I am not used to having direct lines on my altar but the magick that it creates has really manifested in my life.